An exercise in dispelling the myth that all in suburbia is banal and pointless only to find that, by and large, it actually is and that, more importantly, it is beautiful in its ordinariness.

Monday, April 02, 2007

#96 on jet lag

current mood - very very tired but wide awake as wellcurrent music - none but listening earlier to 'we can work it out' by The Beatles

It's a strange thing when your body is telling you one thing and your mind is telling another. It happens in lots of ways not just the effects of long haul travel. For example your body tells you not to bite that finger nail but instead your brain overrides the command and bites it off not so much up to the quick but more like up to elbow.

So it with the inability to string coherent sentences together and instead just crack bad jokes that I begin this new section of my blog all about my trip to Australia to visit big brother B and his partner F.

I'll recount the joys of do it yourself contortionism also known as economy class travel later and just take a moment to paint alittle pictutre of my first few minutes on Australian soil for I think serves as a reminder of my ultimate reason for being here at all...

Darren untwists and uncurls his body from his airliner seat and troops off to customs and immigration at 5:30 before looking for his case (a large black suitcase - that'll stick out from the crowd!) In reality the official bit is a breeze and, for the first time ever, his case is waiting for him on the carousel thus causing him not to develop the usual panic that actually his case is in Rome while he is in Melbourne.

So as he passes down the corridor and around the corner with the cool breeze of freedom blowing in his face whom should Darren meet at the barrier than his big brother, his primary reason for coming to Australia. A moment of tearful embrace is shared and then another. The pair walk slowly to find F waiting with the car lest it get a ticket at 5:45 a.m. (and I thought Harrow parking wardens were tough) A short drive later Darren finds himself at home in good old Flemington in a neighbourhood that looks 'The Sullivans' is just about to start recording - all picturesque, needy and charming. Darren spends much of the rest of the day doing practical chores plus taking B & F's dog, Helen, for a walk to the local shops to thinks about photos he might take of the locality and it's inhabitants in future days.

He chats with B for much of the rest of the day making plans before F gets home and chat and wine continues before Darren excuses himself to write blog (whilst nodding off to sleep) and then hit sack.